Notification Server Push Email via Encrypted Callback URL
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) providers face challenges in delivering push notifications to third-party applications across multiple systems and servers without compromising user email account security, as existing methods require storing credentials that can be vulnerable to theft.
Innovation Solution
A system and method that uses a notification server to receive encrypted user credentials, generates a callback URL with embedded credentials, and decrypts them using a private key to access email accounts for push notifications, ensuring secure delivery without storing unencrypted credentials.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If EMM provider directly accesses user email accounts to monitor changes and send notifications, then push notification delivery is enabled, but user credentials are vulnerable to theft and security breaches occur
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a notification server as an intermediary component between the EMM provider and user email accounts. This server receives encrypted credentials from the EMM provider, decrypts them using a private key, and uses them to access email accounts for monitoring changes. The credentials never remain stored in plaintext on the EMM provider's system, eliminating the security vulnerability while maintaining notification delivery capability.
2Ease of operation
If EMM provider stores email credentials for each user account, then access to email accounts is enabled, but security concerns arise as credentials can be stolen by unauthorized access
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transforms the state of credentials from plaintext to encrypted form during transmission and storage. The EMM provider transmits credentials in encrypted form to the notification server, which then decrypts them temporarily for use. After use, the credentials are not stored in plaintext on the EMM provider's system. This parameter change from plaintext to encrypted form eliminates the security risk while maintaining operational capability.
3Adaptability or versatility
If traditional push notification services are used for third-party applications, then native application notifications work well, but third-party applications cannot receive notifications due to operating system limitations
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a universal notification system that works across different application types (native and third-party) and different operating systems. The notification server acts as a platform-independent intermediary that can monitor email accounts and deliver notifications to any application, regardless of whether it has access to native push notification services. This multi-functionality enables third-party applications to receive reliable notifications without being constrained by operating system limitations.
Data Source
AI summary
Examples described herein include systems and methods for providing push notifications to a third-party application executing on a client device. An example can include encrypting user credentials, generating a callback Uniform Resource Locator (“URL”) with at least a portion of the encrypted credentials embedded into the URL, and requesting notifications from an email service to be provided at the callback URL. Upon receiving a notification at the callback URL, a system component can decrypt the credentials within the URL using a private key and log into the email account using those decrypted credentials. The system component can then generate a push notification based on any changes found in the email account and cause the notification to be delivered to the third-party application on the client device.